New Photography & Web Design site

[Michaelmjc]

Just updated, would appreciate some positive criticism.

www.mikeclarke-photo.com

[taygull]

I like where you are headed.

[photojag]

wow... of the sites that I have been to, I like this one the best.. easy to navigate and well displayed

[Michaelmjc]

Thank you very much for the kind words, I really appreciate it.

[TByrne]

Nice site Michael but:

1. Do you really want to lead with prices? That's offputting. Lead with your work, then lettem know what you want for it.
2. You need a nav link back to the homepage from your picture gallery. I'm not certain why you load it in a separate page, but maybe that has to do with iLife? Wuddever, there will be folks who will want to store just that gallery link among their favorites so they can check back for updates. When they find one they wanna buy.... NOW let them easily get back to your rate card.

Otherwise... it rocks.

Ted

http://homepage.mac.com/byrneprintmaker/

[JasonMX]

I really like the pictures! The only thing I had trouble was finding the gallery from the page with the prices. I couldn't even tell that part of the page was a hotspot.

[kkhardwarestore]

It is a nice site. I do agree that your "photography" link should lead directly to your gallery. Then there should be a link from the gallery to the pricing possibily on a popup. I wouldn't make the pricing page be something they stumble across...make them look for it...not hard just make sure they want to find it. Let them fall in love with the photography first.

[taygull]

I'm not sure there is even a reason to put pricing on a website.....If it must bet there then have it as a link and have a password...you could ask someone to request pricing and then shoot them the password.

Published pricing is great for a commodity but I'm not sure what we do is a commodity. The only difference is when you have a specific gallery where the client(s) are looking for images to make a specific purchase..not to hire.

[Pekka]

Few critiques:
- you sell your work. Why restrict it to people who know how to download and install Flash version 9? How do you know that CEO of Canon is browsing your site with his Communicator and can't get it because there are no html pages. There is nothing there that can not be done with simple (x)html and CSS.
- fixed width design, IHMO not good.
- to see a photo you must have three windows open?
- have to guess the hotlinks

Good photos and a message is buried somewhere.

[MHP]

Mike, i see you're using iweb, atleast for your photos. you can get simpleviewer to work with it for your images, did you know? i would also change the blue sky on the photo page , it doesnt go with the top 9 images you see when you open the page, it's kinda like, "whats that there for"

there used to be an ajax slideshow that created a black background for the photos openning too, don't know if it is still available. you can find details on how to do the simpleviewer and ajax on apple-support-discussions-iweb, use the search facility

take a look at my site and you'll see the simpleviewer working on an iweb site, personally i like it as people can't drag the images from the site so there is no need to put a copyright on the image. if you need a 'how to do it' then PM me and I can send you a couple of links for it.

[Mathiau]

never limit a website to only flash. (something i have to look at getting around as well)

you can cut off a huge customer base of people especially if your running a buisness.

[ellectronico]

I like the layout

[Michaelmjc]

Mike, i see you're using iweb, atleast for your photos. you can get simpleviewer to work with it for your images, did you know? i would also change the blue sky on the photo page , it doesnt go with the top 9 images you see when you open the page, it's kinda like, "whats that there for"

there used to be an ajax slideshow that created a black background for the photos openning too, don't know if it is still available. you can find details on how to do the simpleviewer and ajax on apple-support-discussions-iweb, use the search facility

take a look at my site and you'll see the simpleviewer working on an iweb site, personally i like it as people can't drag the images from the site so there is no need to put a copyright on the image. if you need a 'how to do it' then PM me and I can send you a couple of links for it.


I did know you can use simple viewer, but I want everyone to be able to at least view the gallery.

I'm sure this whole thing would be simple to do in HTML, If I knew it. I wish I knew HTML better so I could have an HTML site as well. Alot of people have flash, and those who dont have the option of downloading it. There are thousands of websites on the net that use flash, so I'm sure a lot of peopel have it installed. Heck, I went to my grandmothers house today, and she had flash installed on her pc. It's about 10 years old.

Thank you for the comments though, I appreciate it.

[Pekka]

I did know you can use simple viewer, but I want everyone to be able to at least view the gallery.

I'm sure this whole thing would be simple to do in HTML, If I knew it. I wish I knew HTML better so I could have an HTML site as well. Alot of people have flash, and those who dont have the option of downloading it. There are thousands of websites on the net that use flash, so I'm sure a lot of peopel have it installed. Heck, I went to my grandmothers house today, and she had flash installed on her pc. It's about 10 years old.

Thank you for the comments though, I appreciate it.

Michael,

Your reasons are common. The fix is in studying and doing. If you need to offer Flash pages, the you also need to offer html version. I'm sorry if I'm blunt but I've been there seen that and regretted that I have not started earlier so I try to pass this knowledge to you. Start digging now into PHP, MYSQL, XHTML, CSS, JS and save some grief later in your web designer career, and have fun with complex projects.

The point of using (x)html and CSS is to separate content from layout, which means your site is easier to edit and design, it displays faster, can flow freely, it is search engine friendly and browser friendly, and portable device friendly. You design and code for the world with endless unknown variations of hardware and software, not for your friends and grandma's PC or Mac.

See http://www.csszengarden.com/ and witness power of CSS.

I would suggest reading http://particletree.com/features/an-overview-of-current-css-layout-techniques/ as a starter.

But code language is not the primary problem. A design process should start with content and interface logic: what content do people need to see and how do they browse the site. If your photos are what you want to show, then make it very easy and obvious where they are and how they can be accessed. If the links to them are in Flash UI, no one without flash will be able to guess their location.

[Wazza]

Nice work Mike..

Don't forget to add a wee title. In the basic html code.. Add the title and some meta tags..
How else will people find you? :D